Why sketch?

Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991.  One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...

Epic views over Western Park

Finally 5 minutes to crack the sketchbook out! There are six of these large old houses overlooking Western Park on Hopetoun Street, lodges and hostels mostly I think.

Unusually for Victorian houses, they don't face the street, but take advantage of the view over Western Park. When originally built they would have been on the very edge of the city so I would think the view from the verandas would have been impressive. Today they still have an epic view, but it would mostly be of the mature trees in Western park.

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